The fiery court battle over New Jersey’s “county-line” ballot system is not confined to Democrats anymore.
After U.S. District Judge Zahid Quraishi struck down New Jersey’s controversial “county-line” ballot as unconstitutional, he ruled the decision applied only to the Democrats’ primary on June 4 because the Republicans had not been plaintiffs.
But Republican groups this week filed a flurry of their own legal briefs — and they don’t all agree. One group doesn’t want the county line on GOP ballots in June, either.
“We’re looking for equality under the law of the original decision,” said Michael Byrne, co-chair of the America First Republicans of New Jersey, a far-right group whose candidates got locked out of that plum “county-line” spot on the GOP’s primary ballot, where Donald Trump tops the ticket.
“If the original decision stays in effect for the Democrats, then it has to be in effect for us,” he said. “Our party really needs to be leading on reform right now. The Democrats own the reform movement with regard to ballot position.”
Elsewhere, both Democrats and Republicans are appealing the original ruling. New Jersey’s Republican Chairs Association filed an amicus brief to defend the “county-line” system before the Third Circuit.
Monmouth Poll director Patrick Murray said the county line can boost a candidate’s vote share by 10 points on Election Day, especially with former President Donald Trump’s name atop the GOP line. “That’s going to be the biggest visual cue that voters on the Republican side have,” Murray said.
That would seem to favor Republican candidate Curtis Bashaw, a Cape May hotelier who’s running for U.S. Senate and won the GOP line from party organizations in 14 counties. His opponents object, bitterly.
“The people who put him on the line are exploiting the Trump name and the Trump brand to drag him to victory,” claimed Byrne, the America First co-chair.
“The facts are, [Bashaw] has a long history of donating to Democrats and a long history of being an anti-Trumper,” added Christine Serrano Glassner, a Trump supporter and U.S. Senate candidate. “And that’s not what the Republican voters are looking for.”
Bashaw rejected Serrano Glassner’s accusations and insisted the county-line system is fair and his party endorsements legitimate.
“We’ve been through a process,” he said. “It feels like it would be very difficult to exclude Republicans from the line process at this late hour.”
